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The faces of two Civil War crewman who die when their brassbound combat ship bury 150 years ago are now visible , thanks to the science of forensic reconstruction .
The two men were part of the crowd of the USS Monitor , the Navy ’s first ironclad war vessel . Theship went downin a violent storm off Cape Hatteras , N.C. , on Dec. 31 , 1862 , while it was being towed . In 2002 , the Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration bring together forces to go back the ship ’s gun gun turret , which hold back two virtually complete skeletons of two man fall back in the shipwreck .
A facial reconstruction of a young Civil War sailor who died in the wreck of the USS Monitor.
Sixteen men died when the Monitor went down , and none of the remains of the other 14 fatal accident was ever found . To find out who died in the gun turret , forensic anthropologists at Louisiana State University volunteered toreconstruct the man ’s facesfrom their skeletal remains using clay reconstructive memory techniques as well as computing gadget modeling . Now NOAA is hoping someone in the world will tell apart the men as ancestors and come forward to identify them . [ Album : face of the Civil War ]
" Our line is to not only protect and bear on our naval history but to make it arrive alive to our sailors and the public , " retired Rear Adm. Jay A. DeLoach , drumhead of the Naval History & Heritage Command , allege in a financial statement . " The fusion of skill , engineering science and history has breathed life into our shipmates , and we are very proud of the legacy we have inherited from the sailors of the USS Monitor . "
The stiff reveal that one of the men was between 17 and 24 years old and about 5 foot , 7 inches tall , with good teeth . The other military man stood 5 feet , 6 inches and was likely between 30 and 40 years old . He likely smoked a pipe . Both humanity were whitened .
A forensic reconstruction of a 30 to 40-year-old sailor found in the sunken USS Monitor.
The reconstruction reveal one young man with a handsome face , perhaps with a pass off resemblance to a new Robert DeNiro . The other man has a broader cheek , with close - set optic and a big nose .
Researchers who have form intimately with the Monitor recovery efforts described the experience of seeing thefacial reconstructionsin aroused terms .
" When Navy divers discover the human being remains in Monitor ’s turret , they immediately began referring to them as ' our shipmate , ' " retired NOAA archeologist John Broadwater , who has authored a Word about the ship , say in a statement . " Looking into these two faces is very moving for me and , I ’m sure , for everyone involved in the Monitor recuperation operation . "
